Then, just a bit ago, four people were standing in my space having a conversation (that didn’t include me).  And three of these people have individual offices! Why couldn’t they meet in one of those offices?  They’ve departed now, but it just reinforces my discontent.

I’m trying to figure out how I can last another 3 years in this job.  I’m feeling like I’m too old (and too good) to be in the environment I’m in, stuck in a freakin’ cubicle. I suppose I could look for a new job, even a promotion, but I’m not sure I want all that responsibility.  Too bad I’m such a big under-achiever.

I’m sure they’ll come out with a patch for it, since it’s so hosed up.  Or at least I hope they do.  I hope it’s a system-wide problem and not just something I’m encountering.  On the positive side, I did backup my files Friday evening.  (But I probably wouldn’t be able to restore them because, you know… System Restore freezes up!)

But in the past several years my interest has waned. I no longer rush out to see a Benjamin Bratt movie. In fact, I haven’t even yet seen “Love in the Time of Cholera.” I don’t track his television appearances. And I’ve been very, very bad about updating the blog site with info or pictures. So I decided it was time to turn in the towel.

There were times in the past when I thought about giving the site up, but the thought of someone taking over “my baby” was unbearable.  Even though I wasn’t keeping up the site, I didn’t want anyone else messing with it.  But now I’m ok.  I’m in the process of transferring the domain name benbratt.com, and I’m sure it’s in good hands.

I’ll be sticking around the fandom and visiting the new website.  I’m really excited about Ben’s new tv series on A&E, The Cleaner.  Although the title of the show is less than stellar, and the premise didn’t thrill me, the show and Benjamin Bratt have gotten some excellent reviews  and from the little ads I’ve seen for it, it looks interesting.

OMG! Do they have any idea of what they may be in for? It’s like they’re giving carte blanche for people to be as obnoxious and annoying as possible. Yeah, that’ll go over well with the other patrons.

Look’s like I won’t be visiting Applebee’s any time soon.

I’m not a news junkie. About the only time I listen to the news is driving to work & back. That’s about all I can take. (And even then it’s sometimes difficult when the announcers are interviewing someone and start to get argumentative. It’s part of my personality that I hate confrontation. My Myers-Briggs profile even says so.) But in recent years I’d learned that I could make good, informed decisions on various issues by listening to Tim Russert. I knew that I’d not only have all the facts, I knew the information would be unbiased.

Although I knew who Tim Russert was, I never paid that much attention to him until the 2000 (fiasco of a) Presidential election. Here was the guy who’d said the results would all come down to Florida. I figured I should start listening to someone who understood the election down to that level of detail. And when I began listening to him in earnest, I found him to be totally unbiased, looking at all angles of the situation, giving me the information I needed to make up my own mind.

Oh, and his white board with “Florida, Florida, Florida” written on it is in the Smithsonian Museum.

Then I realized I could take the computer to some local repair store, since the warranty has expired. I did that a couple weeks ago. They ran diagnostics and told me they could fix it for a reasonable fee. It would take them 24-48 hours. That was over a week ago. I still don’t have it.

The new computer is quite lovely. It’s a Sony all-in-one with a 22″ screen, tv tuner, 2G RAM and 500G hard drive. And what am I doing with it? Playing Mah Jong. Actually, I hadn’t planned on doing much until I got my old computer back. But last night I sort of decided to not wait, and started downloading a couple programs I like. The good thing is both programs (MS Office 2007 and Paint Shop Pro X2) are in trial phase. If I get the other computer back, I’m hoping I can transfer MS 2003 (which I’m much more comfortable with) and PSP from it. We’ll see.

Yesterday, I locked myself out of my condo. I was rushing to get the trash out since I heard the trash truck coming. Turns out it was the landscaping truck and I hadn’t missed pick up. So I proceeded to get my tote bag & keys and head to work, and the door was locked. After knocking on a few neighbors’ doors with no answer, I ran into one of them out walking her dogs. She graciously let me in to use her phone. Unfortunately, the locksmith went to the wrong address and then got stuck in rush hour traffic. Once he showed up, he had a terrible time with the lock. After banging on the door know and jimmying the door jamb, the door popped open. Now there’s silvery flecks of door knob on the floor, which really glisten in the morning sunshine. Eventually I’ll have the whole mechanism replaced (lock and knob are supposed to be one unit), but it’ll cost me about $500. Then again, yesterday’s adventures cost me over half that.

I’m hoping that’s the extent of my Friday the 13th.  So far, so good.

The rules say I’m supposed to tag six other people at the end of the meme, but since I don’t know six people, I may have to skip it. Or, I can always tag some of my LiveJournal friends. (I think I have more than 6 now.)

The rules:

a. Link to the person who tagged you.
b. Post the rules on your blog.
c. Write six random things about yourself.
d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
e. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

And since I am not particularly original, I might just follow Natalie’s lead.

1. I had never broken a bone until January 7, 2008, when I fell down the stairs at work. The good news I got to take 2 weeks off work. The bad news is I live on the top floor of a walk-up condo. So once I got myself up the stairs, I never went down them (until I saw the doctor 1½ weeks later when he put me in a boot). About 20 years ago I severely sprained my ankle on the same leg, tripping on a stair. I can definitely say that a sprain is indeed more painful than a break.
2. I was an officer in the Navy for eight years. I stayed in the Reserves for about 4 more years, but then stopped “drilling.” The Navy eventually discharged me because I hadn’t kept up with my paperwork and training. I’m beginning to think leaving the Navy was the 2nd worst professional mistake I ever made. (The first one being transferring to the organization I currently work for.)
3. It only took me 45 years to decide what I want to be when I grow up—a web designer. I even took some classes to become certified (and am certified). But this was in the early 2000’s and web development has changed enormously since then, and I haven’t kept up. Plus, graphic design and creativity is really, really hard for me.
4. I suffer from severe depression and a mild mood disorder. The good great news is that the treatment I’ve received in the last few years has worked wonderfully, and I now feel better than I have in years ever.
5. My last 2 cars were bought used. The current one is a 2000 Lexus and the previous one was a 1997 Chrysler Sebring convertible (which I bought in 1999). I’d always wanted a convertible, ever since I was 8 years old, and I finally got my dream. But it turned out I almost never put the top down. The summers were too hot and even with sunglasses, the sun bothered my eyes. I tried to wear hats, but the only ones that would stay on in the breeze were baseball caps.
6. I had a heart attack in 2000 and have a stent in one of my major arteries (the LAD, except I can’t remember what it stands for). That’s the first and only time I’ve ever been hospitalized. I had high cholesterol (which I could have controlled with diet, but didn’t) and was going through perimenopause at the time (much too early, in my opinion!). I knew my bad habits would catch up to me eventually. I just didn’t think it’d be so soon. The bad news is my habits still aren’t very good (coping mechanism for #4 above), but the good news is my heart is functioning normally, and I’ve just started to turn my bad eating habits around.

So, that’s me in a nutshell. Ok, it’s a really BIG nutshell.

And, now I shall tag hanncoll, zanne68, jade_kadir, janglyjewels, just_ruth, and the_other_sandy, all from LJ.

I was going to start taking my lunch to work, but I think I’ll just work on breakfast and dinner for now. But the cafeteria at work has been closed for a few weeks. It changed management & apparently they have found several “unexpected surprise guests.” So while the guests are being shooed away, a catering truck, aka “roach coach,” has been supplying lunch. Their specialty is beef hot dogs with all sorts of toppings (I prefer sauerkraut). I love hot dogs, so I haven’t been complaining. Their pork barbeque sandwich is also pretty good, with tasty cole slaw and potato salad.

But I just didn’t feel like getting a sandwich today and ended up eating a lunch of sunflower seeds. We also had a bake sale going on, so I sandwiched the sunflower seeds with two pieces of cake. (Temporally sandwiched, not physically!) So of course I continue to feel bleah. Tomorrow is supposed to be the last day for the roach coach, so I think I’ll celebrate it with a couple of hot dogs. Who knows when I’ll have them again?

New Supernatural tonight. It better be better than the last 2! You hear me, Kripke??

On another note, I’ve been very lazy in updating any of my blogs. And I need to, especially Pack Brat, because I’ve made some great progress. But instead, I’ve been spending my time make little tiny pictures for the tv show Supernatural. Yeah, I know I’m obsessed. But right now, I’m probably more obsessed with making the little pictures than with the show itself. The writers’ strike, and the network’s treatment of the show during the strike, didn’t do it any favors, especially when it has to go up against Grey’s Anatomy, Lost and CSI. At least Supernatural’s been picked up for a fourth season already.

This weekend, I had something planned for every day, including Friday evening. And two of them actually required (more than) a bit of effort on my part.

Friday: finally got my taxes done. Last year I went to H&R Block since I didn’t want to deal with it myself. It was kind of annoying and I wasn’t going to do it again. But once again I didn’t want to do my taxes, so I went to H&R Block again. It was much better this time, very easy & effortless. I really liked the woman I got this time and plan to use her from now on. She even gave me some suggestions for even more deductions.

The only problem was that I was 1/2 hour late and ended up waiting for quite a long time. Fortunately, I’d brought along a book to read, so the time went fairly fast.

When I was finished, around 8 p.m., I went outside. The evening was gorgeous! It was one of those early summer evenings that I absolutely love. The air was warm and still, the sky had a glow to it, and it just made you want to sit on a bench and watch the night go by.

Saturday I had a hair appointment. Not much effort on my part, but I pulled out a Real Simple magazine from a couple months ago to read while “processing,” and found a couple of nice articles to take to heart. One in particular was how to match flowers and vases. Everyone needs more flowers in their lives!

Sunday I had a professional organizer come over. Not only did we come up with a plan of attack, but we actually started attacking. I was tired and smelly and dirty afterwards, but I sure felt good. And I rewarded myself by relaxing all afternoon, watching Dark Angel episodes (I have just gone bonkers for Jensen Ackles), playing computer games, and making cute little icon pictures.